The present invention is directed to an automatic elevator latch for automatically latching the pipe elevator of a rotary drilling rig.
As a result of the recent energy crises and the need for greater quantities of oil and gas, it is necessary to drill at great depths to discover oil and gas resources. In order to drill at such great depths, very large drilling rigs have been constructed. As a result, the pipe elevators of these large drilling rigs are usually located five to twenty feet above the derrickman's head at the time when these pipe elevators need to be latched or closed.
At the present time, pipe elevators are manually latched by the derrickman by climbing above the derrickboard to the location of the pipe elevator at the time it must be latched. The derrickman must take off his safety belt to climb a sufficient height to manually latch the pipe elevator. The disadvantage of this manual latching technique is that it is both dangerous and time consuming.